In my recent article about pet poisoning, I mentioned toxicity in dogs after eating grapes and, even worse, raisins. To my surprise, many people have expressed shock to me about this. Seeing as so many folks seem unaware of this serious problem, I felt it deserved its own article.
We only really discovered grape toxicity at the turn of the century. It was suspected for a while, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the ASPCA began tracking this and it was definitively agreed-upon to be a major issue. It’s actually surprising how long this went undetected. However, there were so many environmental and pet food toxins before this, that it’s at least understandable. Even in RI, many vets saw dogs getting sick after living on a retired air base and most assumed it was some leftover toxin from the war days. As it turns out, the base actually used to be a vineyard before World War 2 and the grapes were still growing wild in yards. Dogs were scarfing them up and it was missed for years.
Despite the almost 20 years since this discovery, we still don’t know what the toxic agent is within grapes. We have effectively ruled out pesticides, fungus , and heavy metals. The seeds also don’t seem to be a factor as seedless grapes are just as toxic. We also see it in sultanas and Zante currants. What we do know is that their ingestion will cause rapid and potentially fatal kidney damage. For a 20 pound dog, as little as 15 raisins can be toxic. The most common ingestion I see is cinnamon raisin bagels. That said, the severe ones tend to come from homes with toddlers. Raisins are obviously a common snack and the packaging has gotten bigger over the years. Dogs can grab whole boxes from kids’ hands without the parents even noticing. So, if you have dogs and young kids, I would not include raisins in the family snack choices.
When a dog eats raisins, you definitely want to make them vomit ASAP. Even 30 minutes is enough to cause the kidney values to start to increase on blood work. If you are far from your vet or an ER where this can be induced medically, you can use hydrogen peroxide. Just give it a tablespoon at a time until they puke. Then, call the vet and get them checked out. This is definitely not a wait & see scenario. They will need to have antidote gel given, blood work checked, and possibly other treatment. Ideally, the amount will not be enough to cause permanent damage, but rechecks will be needed to determine this.
For the severe cases, they can land in the ICU. They will need a lot of fluid therapy and care, but it still may not be enough to pull them through. Those dogs will require dialysis. These hospitals stays can easily top $15,000-$20,000.